ART // Jean-Ulrick DÉSERT

Jean-Ulrick Désert
Waters of Kiskeya (detail) 2017
inks, pencil, watercolor on Vellum paper
275 x 183 cm

Deux Noix de Coco is really excited to meet Jean Ulrick Désert, who is currently presenting his work at espace d'art contemporain 14°N 61°W. Nathalie, CEO of Deux Noix de Coco was already able to get a first glimpse of his new work “Waters of Kiskeya”, which will be the centerpiece of the new exhibition at espace d’art contemporain 14°N 61°W.

Nathalie: “ I saw the work in progress, the softness of the colors, the filigrane and pittoresque painting style will make you discover details in exploring a map the more you admire it  - I am so excited to see what it will look like, when it is finished”.

“Water of Kiskeya” is inspired by the hand-colored maps of 18th Century often found in antiquary dealers today. The 275cm x 183cm map is rendered in various familiar styles such as flora & fauna atlases like those of John James Audubon (Born in Les Cayes before the Haitian Revolution) as well as the decorative motifs of such artists as Jean Théodore Dupas.

 

Jean Ulrick Désert

Jean Ulrick Désert is a great conceptual and visual artist born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The political entanglements of his parents led them to a life in exile in New York, where he studied art and architecture at the elite institutions of the Cooper Union and Columbia University.

Just like Nathalie, Désert spends several years in Germany, where he established his atelier in Berlin in 2002 and where he has been living since. Before he opened his atelier, he spent several years as an artist-in- residence of the Cité International des Arts in Paris. Nathalie & Désert’s biography share parallels with stops in New York, France, and Germany.

Désert's art works vary in form: public billboards, actions, paintings, site-specific sculpture, video and art objects. They emerge from a tradition of conceptual work engaged with social and cultural practices.

He has exhibited widely at venues such as The Brooklyn Museum, The Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston, Grey Art Gallery NYU/Studio Museum of Harlem, Walker Art Center in the USA, la Cité Internationale des Arts in France, The Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst in Germany and in galleries and public venues as well in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Ghent, Brussels.

He is the recipient of awards, public commissions, private philanthropy, including Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Villa Waldberta-Munich, Kulturstiftung der Länder (Germany) and Cité des Arts (France). He received his degrees at Cooper Union and Columbia University (New York) and has been an invited lecturer and critic at universities in the United States (Princeton, Yale, Columbia), Germany (Humboldt University in Berlin) and in France (at the École supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris). He also advises and teaches for Trans Art Institute (based in New York).

Check out Désert's  Art work at:

14°N 61°W
espace d'art contemporain
Place de l'Enregistrement
97200 Fort de France - Martinique FWI